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Malaria: Our Impact

In Mali, major weaknesses in the pharmaceutical sector include lack of availability of regular, reliable pharmaceutical management information for decision-making and an inadequate and fragmented logistics system that fails to take the community level into account when planning for inventory management. As a result, stock-outs of lifesaving commodities are frequent at all health service delivery points.

"When I arrived in Liberia in early 2014,” says Management Sciences for Health's (MSH's) Kwabena Larbi, senior technical advisor with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), “I found there were a lot of malaria partners—the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), Global Fund, international organizations, lots of NGOs… Each was more or less doing their own thing.”

The explosion of the Zika virus in South America, Central America and the Caribbean has provided more vivid evidence of the urgency to invest in pandemic prevention and preparedness. The virus is spread by the day-biting Aedes aegypti mosquito that also carries dengue and chikungunya viruses. Although it was first identified in 1947, until the 2000s it had been confined to Africa.

Young children at 10 community care sites already benefiting from new study
In 2012, malaria was the leading cause of death for children under the age of five in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), accounting for 18 percent of under-five deaths.

A recent outbreak has prompted the USAID Mikolo Project, led by MSH, to actively engage in the global fight to eradicate polio in Madagascar. Eight new cases of acute flaccid paralysis, the most common sign of acute polio, were reported between April and May of this year.

Solange Helene Rasoanirina is an active and motivated member of her community. Along with community health volunteers, the 24-year-old has become a reference for health in Masiakakoho, a remote village in southeastern Madagascar’s Tataho commune in Manakara II district.

With thousands of people dying in West Africa from the Ebola virus and many more at risk, Liberia’s Accredited Medicine Stores (AMS) and other drug shops continue to help ensure access to pharmaceutical products and services at the community level even as other health facilities have closed down. They also offer the potential to contribute to the control of the lethal disease that has West Africa and the international community on high alert.

Cecilia Lunda has wanted to be a nurse since she was a little girl when her mother, a nurse, sparked Lunda's passion for helping people. As she grew up, Lunda studied hard and made her dream come true—she has worked as a nurse at the Kiloleli Dispensary in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania for four years.

With the signature chubby cheeks and plump thighs of a well-fed, healthy baby, Justina charms the villagers in Mizilo Gare, the small Malagasy commune where she lives. They admire Justina’s good health and consider her mother, Justine, a role model for other mothers in the community.